


...You're Out of Time

by Thestarswillnotsaveus



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Angst but she's getting better, COUNTER/Weight Spoilers, Fix-It of Sorts, Jace Rethal (mentioned), September Incident (COUNTER/Weight) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 08:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17639141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thestarswillnotsaveus/pseuds/Thestarswillnotsaveus
Summary: After realizing the horrible truth of the September Incident, Maritime Lapel flees the planet September, and finds aid from an unlikely ally.





	...You're Out of Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [racheldawnamber](https://archiveofourown.org/users/racheldawnamber/gifts).



> Hey y'all, thanks for reading!! This didn't turn out quite the way I hoped, due to time constraints and a busy schedule, but I'm happy to have this to share with this incredible community. And shout out to racheldawnamber for the amazing prompt! 
> 
> This is an AU where the Maritime Lapel who escapes into Mode City actually managed to escape the assassin from the September Institute, and takes place before the events of the season. 
> 
> (More notes at the end)

It had been a long night for Maritime Lapel.

Of course, being a star art student at the September Institute, she was no stranger to long nights. However, she was more used to burning the midnight oil sculpting in the Mesh. Running for her life while being shot at after discovering she was a clone was altogether new to her.

Now she found herself sitting on a bench at the Mode City Spaceport, preparing to leave her entire life behind. This is crazy. She was crazy. There was no way any of this was real.

She caught her breath. No, this was real. As much as she wanted to pinch herself and wake up, this was her life now.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed movement. A pair of security guards were making their way through the crowd, clearly looking for someone. Shit. Of course the Institute wouldn’t let her get away that easily. She stood up, and began to quietly move away from them. Her breath started to catch in her throat. They’re going to catch me. They’re going to catch me, pull me into a side closet somewhere, and kill me. I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m so f-“

She was so lost in her panic that she didn’t see the boy until she had already crashed into him, sending both of them sprawling to the floor. “Shit, I’m sorry.” As she picked herself up off the floor, she realized that she recognized the person she’d run into: he was a classmate of hers, a boy named Mako Trig.

Mako pulled himself up to a knee. “Nah, you’re good. I really liked this floor pattern, and I was waiting for an excuse to get a better look at it.” He offered her a hand to help her up. She took it gratefully, and opened her mouth to thank him.

Suddenly, she was back in the room, eye to eye with herself, or something like her. An entire room filled with hers. And others. Her stomach dropped: Mako was one of the others. Could she trust him? Was this even the Mako Trig that she kinda sorta knew?

She was snapped out of her thoughts by the voice of the spaceport security agents talking to someone behind her. Shit. The panic began filling her chest again, and she felt herself getting frantic.

Mako looked at her face, registering the panic, then looked at the guards, then back to her. “Hey, are those guys after you?”

She nodded, what else could she do?

Mako nodded back. “Alright cool, just give me a second.” His eyes left hers, and he began looking around the spaceport, clearly looking for something. As his eyes came to a rest, Maritime followed his gaze to a screen displaying the destinations of outgoing flights, his eyes settled briefly on the entry for a flight to the Rethal-Addax Spaceport on Counterweight.

“Alright, no, this is gonna be great. You keep on going, and I’ll distract those guards. You wouldn’t happen to have a fake mustache on you, would you?”

Maritime blinked. “I-“

Mako chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, I always keep one on me.” Sure enough, he produced a mustache from his pocket and affixed it to his upper lip. “Alright, go for it.”

And with that, he slipped past her, walking straight towards the guards, calling out “Hey fellas! What’s a WAR HERO gotta do to get a drink around here? I don’t suppose either of you fine gentlemen would share a drink with THE legendary Jace Rethal, would you?”

Maritime bolted, and didn’t look back until she was seated on the next outgoing shuttle: the flight to the Rethal-Addax Spaceport on Counterweight.

* * *

 

“So who’d you piss off?”

Maritime jumped, the sudden voice startling her from an exhausted rest. As she turned her head towards the sound, coming from the seat next to her on the shuttle, she found herself face-to-face, yet again, with Mako Trig. This time, the panic didn’t set in- if this Mako Trig was one of the clones she’d seen in the Institute sent to kill her, she would certainly have been dead by now. \

“I- uh…”

How the Hell do you tell someone that you got expelled from school, at gunpoint, because you found a body farm under the school, one that you probably came from. And one that they probably came from, she realized: even if this Mako Trig was friendly, was it right for her to tell him what she knew? Would he believe her?

“I set off a stink bomb in my Oricon History class.”

Mako grinned “Oh MAN, that must have been fun. Who’d you have, Dr. Pane? The one with the weird glasses?” She nodded. “Man, they made me take his class 3 times, can you believe it? He refused to let me take his class anymore after I fogged our local Mesh instance to make his glasses display bad Apostolosian soap operas. That was fun.”

For the first time since her terrible night began, Maritime laughed. This doofus was funny, and he’d helped save her life. She desperately needed a friend, and she figured she could do a lot worse than Mako Trig.

“Yeah, I’m on my way out too,” said Mako. “Fuck school, you know?”

Maritime nodded. “Fuck school.”

“I mean, listen, I’m basically the best hacker in the Golden Branch, what do I need some assholes lecturing me about ‘history,’ or ‘responsibility,’ or ‘rules.’ Its bullshit, and I’m done with it. And you, you’ve got the whole art thing, right? You’re like, an amazing sculptor, right?”

“I mean, I’m alright. I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say ‘amazing…’”

Mako shook his head. “That modesty, that’s them talking. You and me? We don’t need any of that shit, we’re gonna go be great, if only just to spite ‘em.”

She had to admit, Mako had a point, even if he didn’t know it. The best way for her to strike back at the Institute was though her art. If she could live long enough to gain some sort of following, then maybe she could actually get the word out about what the Hell they were up to.

She smiled. “Yeah, that sounds like a plan to me.”

Mako smiled back. “Hell yeah. So tell me, do you have a plan for what you’re gonna do on Counterweight? You have a place lined up?”

Maritime blinked. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. “Uhh, not really, no.”

“Alright, cool, so before I left September, I talked to my friend Ted, right? And he told me that he has a guy on Counterweight who owes him some favors.”

Maritime blinked again. “Ted? Lazer Ted? What does that guy even do that someone light years away would owe him a favor?”

Mako’s smile dropped for a moment. “He gets around. Anyway, this guy apparently knows a guy who’s kid once did a favor for a landlord in Centralia, so basically I’ve got an apartment.”

“Once that complicated series of favors goes through.”

Mako’s smile came back.

“Lazer Ted has never let me down before, except for the many, many times that he has flaked out on me. It’s gonna be fine. Anyway, from what I hear, the place should have two beds, if you need a place to crash.”

Maritime let out a breath. “That sounds delightful, thanks!”

Mako shrugged “What are friends for, you know?”

**Author's Note:**

> So again, I wasn't able to put as much into this as I would have liked, so I'll definitely be putting out a sequel fic (@racheldawnamber, I definitely have your suggestions re: Aria, and Maritime being a big ol' gay in mind, and I'm bummed that I wasn't able to fit them in here), so keep an eye out for that!
> 
> Again, thanks for reading, and I hope y'all have a great Secret Samol!


End file.
